


Phoenix - Ghosts of the Past

by Edgeofdoom



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Tags are Hard I'm Done, Trilla Suduri | Second Sister Lives, Trilla Suduri | Second Sister Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:42:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edgeofdoom/pseuds/Edgeofdoom
Summary: When that crimson blade came slicing through the air, slashing down onto the paralyzed woman's back; when her body soundlessly collapsed, her eyes wide open and unseeing; when the roaring fire consumed her body, her ash swept away by the droids, everyone thought Trilla Sudari was dead. All of them were wrong.Legends told of phoenixes burning away in a blaze of glory when they die, only to reborn from the ashes, as something new, yet also retaining their old self. They say all legends were based on truth, they were not wrong.Trilla Sudari had been burned away in a blazing inferno; rising from her ashes, Aaliyah Rivera stood tall and proud.
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

As the poncho-wearing-Jedi-wannabe strolled into the interrogation chamber like he owned the place, dropping yet another purge trooper into the proverbial dirt, I was perched in the rafters, sabre in hand, cape fluttering and patiently waiting, like a hawk on the hunt. Well, I was indeed a hawk on the hunt, but instead of the small mammals, my prey was much, much larger – a specific homo sapient – the one below me.

The last trooper didn't even know he was coming. He only had time for one pained scream as that cyan blade tore through his armour before he slumped to the ground with a soft thud. Pathetic. With the danger seemingly neutralised, the figure deactivated his sabre. _Perfect, and now the fly has come into my parlour._ With a yell, I sprung the trap.

My crimson blades came into existence as I sail through the air, its brilliance piercing through the darkness, and I brought it to strike overhead at the boy. As predicted, he rolls away at the last second, and I followed up with a slash. The front blade missed, but the rear one was on course to cut that scrapper in half – until he ignites his sabre, statically blocked my strike. _The boy's reflex and skills are getting better, this fight's gonna be interesting... He'll finally be a worthy fight, but surely, he'll still lose. Too bad._

With a bit of the Force's help, I knocked his blade aside, but also due to the Force infused motion, I overswung and left myself quite vulnerable, so I immediately performed another slash, forcing him to respond rather than take advantage of my weakness. The rear blade, again, was the one that made contact, glancing off his sabre. With that done, I took a step back, facing his with my right shoulder, and pointing the rear blade at the scrapper boy.

The boy then lunges at me with a thrust, and in one smooth motion, I sidestepped, switching to face him with my left shoulder, change to holding my lightsabre with one hand and force pushed him away with the other hand. He fell on his derrière then flip over his head to a kneeling position a few meters away, and he slowly stands back up. I smirked under my helmet as I twirl my crimson blades, then I brought the sabre forward and into a guard position, holding it steady, and ready.

The boy ignites his sabre again and steadily advanced towards me. _Cere certainly did a decent job training this one in the ways of the sabre, look at how fast this boy improved!_ It's impressive, to say at least. He came at me with a slash from my upper right, which I responded with a block, deflecting the blow, and spin my sabre to strike his head with the other blade, which he also blocked with his own second blade. He then ducked and thrusted at my foot, while my blade, being knocked off course by his secondary blade, went sailing far above his head. I wanted to bring my sabre down to strike again but doing so would leave me completely exposed to his attack. Instead, I back paddled out of his reach, before circling him, forcing his to adjust to my movements.

But nope. He decided to go on the offensive, bring his sabre to his left and in a big telegraphic move, attempted to strike me in a double slash. The first slash missed wildly, but the second one was on course, so I simply moved my sabre to the right place to block it. _Okay, this one still needs a bit more training._ I sensed his want to speak, so I waited in the bind.

And so his speaks, of his great wisdom.

'Trilla,' So he stares into my visor and began his speech. 'I saw what you've been through. You've experienced great suffering.' No shit, Captain Obvious. 'It's not too late to let it go.'

'Let go?' I scoffed. 'I'm stronger now because of the pain.' With that, I knocked his blade away, but also unbalanced myself, oops. I took a step back and decided to taunt him a little bit just so I could recompose myself. I reached behind me to where my clock had conveniently covered my belt and brought the holocron out.

'Is this what you're looking for?' I asked, 'I knew you'd came back for this. I even brought it here for you, where's my thank you?' Silence greeted me. 'No thank you? Alright, then you'll never make it out of this place alive!'

I presented my left shoulder to him, held my sabre ready and so he came at me once more, this time with more strength and power behind his strikes. _He's getting frustrated._ I mentally facepalmed at his attempt at brute-forcing this. _Seriously, did he forgot that he's using a kriffing plasma weapon that parts durasteel like butter? He's going to tire himself out real quick._

Mr. Jedi-wannabe started using his sabre like a bat. 'Good grief, even the army troopers could handle a vibrosword with more grace than this.' I muttered under my breath, all the while dodging his strikes. On one particular slash, he overextended too far, leaving his torso completely exposed. It's too great of an opportunity to not take advantage of. Like a coiled snake, I snapped a thrust at his direction, unfortunately for me, he still processed sufficient reflexes to dodge out of the way, but yet, not enough to completely steer clear of my strike. He cried out in pain when my blade connects with his flesh, leaving a perfect cylindrical hole on his chest, and staggered a few steps. Now I'm on the offensive, throwing strikes after strikes at the scrapper, victory was at hand, I could fell it.

I made a mistake then and there. I let the seemingly at hand victory blinded me and became sloppy at my blade work. I forgot my opponent was still a formidable fencer. I was a fool, and I paid the price. It was me that overextended this time with a downward slash, the scrapper then pushed at my blade to further knock me off balance. I followed my momentum and spun around, hoping to regain my footing, only to find his blade in a thrust waiting for me. The thrust went straight in my shoulder. With a scream of pain, I dropped my sabre and fell to my knees, holding my shoulder. _Well, maybe this is where my road ends, at the hands of another one of Cere's padawan. Oh well, so be it._

The boy summoned the holocron to his hands, took a step back and shut his sabre off. He then promptly returned his sabre to his belt.

'Cal!' Cere rushed to the boy's side, looking over her latest padawan, ignoring me.

'I have the holocron.' The boy replies, also ignoring the inquisitor in front of him.

Cere glanced at me, and told him, 'I need to do this.' She picked up my lightsabre, walked in front of me, and knelt in front of me. 'It's over, Trilla.' She said.

'Nothing is truly over.' I sneered. _Yeah, I might just come back to life after you 'put me out of my misery.'_

'This fight is over.' _Well, that's very obvious, isn't it?_ 'I know the darkness that's eating you up inside and every day we choose to either feed it...' I sighed and shook my head, reaching up to remove my helmet with my one good hand. I wanted to see eye to eye with Cere. '...or fight it.' She finishes.

'It's too late Cere.' The words tumble out of my mouth, pain – both physical and emotional – laced my words.

'No.' Cere shook her head. 'It's not.' She sighed. 'I know the choices that I made took away all your choices, and I have failed you, Trilla.' _No no no I can't cry now, not now._ 'I failed you, and I'm so very sorry.'

I gritted my teeth and attempted to stand, turning my face away. Once I was shakily on my feet, Cere held out a hand, 'Come with us, Trilla, I doesn't have to be that way.'

I shook my head and said, 'I've carried so much hate for you.' Hot tears teased the rim of my eyes. _Damnit, I nearly can't hold them back anymore._ Suddenly I heard the distinctive heavy breathing through a respirator and the thuds of boots. Fear coursed through my mind, and my eyes widened. My body was held in place by a force bind, but I didn't struggle, for the end is near, and I will soon be free.

A loud thud of a body dropping behind me echoed through the chamber, Cere and her padawan ignited their lightsabres in response.

'You have failed me, inquisitor.' He said, a lightsabre ignites behind me.

'Avenge us!' I shouted. The next moment, an agonising pain rips through my back, and I felt my body fail. I fell to the floor and gave in to the darkness.

I was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello pepsss
> 
> As I always say, dying is an excellent way to start a story. :)


	2. Chapter I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the dead isn't as dead as we thought, oh and a lot of junk.

With a gasp, my eyes flew open.

My body was sore all over, especially my back, where I could still feel the lightsabre through my decoy’s back. I quickly detached myself from the numerous wires connecting myself to the remote-control module, stagger out of the tube to a terminal and gave commands for the decoy to use all remaining power to maintain the dead body programme. I am finally free, free from the clutches of the empire... If they didn’t notice anything amiss before they incinerate my ‘corpse’. Which they most likely won’t. _It’s honestly amazing how hopelessly clueless the stormtroopers were, considering they were the elites. Sometimes even the army troopers make better soldiers then those helpless fools do._

With a bounce in my step, I walked out of the chamber and into my hanger, where a relatively intact relic of a ship sat, awaiting repairs and modernisation. After all, the poor ship’s over 3600 years old, it was only because of all that stuff that got piled on top of her that prevented her from turning completely into a rust bucket, but still, I had to replace a lot of parts. Now, after a few years of refurbishing, she was almost space worthy again, only lacking some finishing touches.

The ship, after slumbering for thousands of years, really deserved to have a new name. Especially when her former name is _Emperor’s Wrath._ Nope, just nope. I’m calling it the _Phoenix._ The _Phoenix’s_ interior was covered in carbon scorching, someone had shot up the place before they abandoned it in this junkyard of a planet, perhaps that’s the only reason the ship’s computers weren’t wiped. According to the logs, this luxury shuttle-lookalike was once used by the Imperial Intelligence, Sith Empire; custom built to be used by them too and have the combat ability of a heavy fighter. She’s just perfect for my needs, I think I’m falling in love with her already.

My base was built around the hanger, with all the different rooms arranged in a circle around it. Its entirety was buried under a mountain of trash on the planet of Lotho Minor and was completely undetectable. Well, if someone even bothered to look at all. I walked into my workshop, where a half-built astromech sat on the table. Whistling a happy tune, I plopped down on a chair and got to work.

‘Anddddd... done!’

T7 beep mockingly at me, saying he could’ve done that in half the time.

‘Shut up you little shit.’

Beeping sadly, the little droid rolled up into the _Phoenix._ The ship was ready for spaceflight now, I even found a few cans of paint gave her a new look. Now, the X-70B have a grey paint job with sapphire highlights, looking sharp and fresh for the job. All my belongings are onboard, and the base was back to its original state: a cavern in a mountain of scrap. I was ready to go.

On the bridge, T7 had already plugged into the computer and started the pre-flight checks. I sat down at the command chair and placed my new lightsabre in the compartment next to the chair. Unlike my previous spinning monstrosities, this one only had a single blade and no spinning feature. _I always hated that feature... It’s for lazy little shits._ Yet unlike other normal lightsabres, this one had a handguard. I had my fingers chopped off by Lord Vader too many times to not add hand protection to my sabre. The handguard was a basket hilt, made from beskar salvaged from a mando helmet, and are modelled after ancient vibroswords. Yeah, I won’t get my fingers chopped off anymore.

With the pre-flight check complete, I activated the laser cannons and the turbolaser I replaced the concussion missile launcher with, seeing that I won’t be able to get any missiles for that launcher anyways, and blasted my way out the side of the mountain. Breaching the atmosphere of Lotho Minor, following a beep from T7 tat told me the hyperspace calculations to Tatooine was finished, I pulled the lever and we were away. To the pit of scum and villainy we went!

Tatooine. A force forsaken dust ball, home to the worse sort of scum in the galaxy. Just the place an ex-imperial could start her new life. I landed the _Phoenix_ in Mos Eisley, activated the automatic defences in case someone tries something and went out to find a job.

The cantina was loud and crowded, as they often were. A live band was performing on a stage, bartenders were scurrying around, servant girls were getting groped... The usual cantina scene. I went up to the bar table and waved a bartender over.

‘I’m looking for a transport job, got any recommendations?’ I slipped a few credits to her.

‘Would you transport passengers?’ The girl asked.

‘I’m not opposed to it.’

Pointing at the table in the corner, the girl said, ‘Then go talk to that bald fallow wearing goggles on his forehead over there, the name’s Ellis.’

‘Okay, thanks.’

I walked over to the man and leaned on his table. ‘I heard you require transport?’ I asked.

The man looked at me up and down, 'Yeah, to Nal Hutta for three. 5000 credits each.’

‘8000.’ I countered

‘6500, or no deal.’

‘Alright. Meet me at dock 12... 2 standard hours from now. Name's Aaliyah.’ We shook hands and parted ways.

Trilla Sudari was dead, the Empire had burned her to ashes. Rising from her ashes, was Aaliyah Rivera, the captain of the _Phoenix._ My little slicing job into the Empire’s population database made sure of that.

In those two hours, I managed to refuel and rearm the _Phoenix_ with time to spare, even managed to buy myself a brand-new DL-18 blaster pistol for just 500 credits. It was now sitting on my right thigh while my sabre hung on my left via a hook. With its unconventional shape, I doubt anyone was going to realise it as what it was.

Finally, Ellis arrived with some beefy looking man with a rifle slung on his back, and a blue-skinned Twi’lek with a shock collar on. My view of Ellis immediately plummets. I hate slavers with a passion, that practice was barbaric, uncultured and disgusting.

‘Here you are. Half upfront.’ I held out my hand, and he passed over a credit chip. ‘Alright, this way.’ I led them onto the _Phoenix._ I had done some remodelling, and the one large conference was now three smaller rooms, and the crew bedroom now only spots a single bed.

‘Pick your rooms, the one upfront is mine.’ I told them. ‘We will be leaving as soon as the clearance comes. Don’t try to mess with my ship, I will know.’ I warned.

They dispersed and I went to the bridge, where T7 was running the checklist.

Soon after, the clearance came, and the _Phoenix_ left the dust ball and entered hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well well well. Turns out she's not as dead as it seems, who would've thought? I'm sure no one sees this coming...
> 
> Anyways, here's a lil chappie for yall, enjoy! Leave your thoughts! I would love to hear your feedback :)


	3. Chapter II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ali find a friend.

The _Phoenix_ was in hyperspace, two days into the journey. I was sitting on my chair on the bridge, reading the history of the old Sith Empire. Surprisingly, the republic symbol post-Russan Reformation is almost the same as the Imperial Crest of the Sith Empire. Truly, it looks like the Sith had been influencing the republic for a long time, Sidious was only placing the final stones in place.

‘How long until we reach Nal Hutta?’ Ellis asked, walking into the bridge.

I glanced at the terminal, ‘Three days.’ I answered.

‘Good, thanks.’ He turned around and left.

A while later, I heard two sets of footsteps entering the bridge.

‘What could I do for you?’ I asked, as I heard another set of footsteps stop just outside the bridge.

‘You could pass over your weapon, the codes for this ship and the droid.’ Ellis growled; at the same time a barrel poked my head.

These people had just given me an excuse to kill them, they really have no clue how much time they had just shaved off their life. Oh well, I’ll abide by their request. I slowly stood up and face my assailants, slowly passed over my blaster to the big man. Both relaxed when I was ‘unarmed’, fools. In the background, I saw that slave girl holding a vibroblade, attempting to sneak up on them. This one still has that fire in her, good. I thought. I like that.

‘Pass over that decoration on your belt too, I want it.’ Ellis said. Perfect.

I reached out with the sabre emitter first towards Ellis, and he eagerly reached out to take it from me. Now you will die. Ellis gave a choked gasp as a yellow blade tore through his chest and out the side; before the other guy could bring his blaster to bear on me, his head was rolling on the ground. The Twi’lek stood in shocked silence, only to be broken by the ping of her blade slipping from her hand and falling to the ground. I looted the bodies and found the deactivation codes for the girl’s implant and collar, walked up to the girl and tilted her head up to look at me.

‘What’s your name?’ I softly asked.

That snapped her out of her trance. ‘What do you want with me?’ She demanded.

I inputted the deactivation code to the remote and took off the collar. ‘Nothing.’ I smiled at her. ‘You could take everything these two owned,’ I gestured to the bodies, ‘I just want my payment, as agreed.’

‘Really?’ She asked, her eyes shining, hope leaking into her force signature. Just as I hooked my sabre back on my belt, she tackled me in a hug. ‘Thank you!’

My body stiffened, ‘I could drop you off at whatever planet you want.’ I said, swiftly disengaging myself from her.

‘Could I stay? As your crew? I don’t really have anywhere to go.’

‘You sure? You just saw me kill two people in seconds.’

‘Absolutely. About these two? They deserved it.’ She said, ‘Oh and are you a Jedi?’

‘Nope.’ I’m not going to spill my life story to some random person who I don’t really know.

‘Okay...’ She glanced at me, obviously doesn’t believe me, but was wise enough to not keep asking.

‘Now you’re my crew, your first duty is to clean up this place while I get rid of the bodies.’ With that, I dragged the various body parts out with the force to the airlock, throw them in and blast them into the empty void of hyperspace, to be forever lost.

I knocked on the former slave’s door. ‘You still haven’t told me your name yet, care to enlighten me?’ I asked.

The girl squeaked, turned around, pressed her back to the wall, saw it’s me, then relaxed. ‘Kriffing hell! Don’t scare me like that!’

I raised my eyebrows at her.

‘Alright alright, I’m being dramatic. The name’s Siny’aziveri, but just call me Sinya.’

‘Sure.’ I turned and started to leave.

‘Er... I still don’t know your name.’

‘It’s Aaliyah Rivera. By the way, do you know how to use a blaster?’ I looked back at her.

‘I’ve been a slave since birth, so no.’

‘Alright, follow me, I’ll teach you.’ During the clone war, I asked one of the clones in my master’s company to teach me the art of using blasters, out of sight of Cere, of course. Now those skills would be vital to keeping me under the Empire’s scanners. After all, I can’t just whip out my sabre anywhere if I want to keep the inquisitorius off my tail.

We waked to the main cargo hold, where there were some crates lying around. I pulled my blaster out and started teaching.

Hours later, Sinya had already grasped the basics of blaster maintenance and usage. For someone who had never touched a blaster before, she was a surprisingly good shot. That skill will come in handy.

The Phoenix dropped out of hyperspace near Nal Hutta. T7 plugged in as the navigator and Sinya sitting on the engineering console. I had also been teaching her a little bit about starships, but it’s like trying to teach a bull to climb a tree: utterly improbable.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ll be docking at Nar Shadda, instead of Nal Hutta. There’re more jobs there.’

Nar Shadda was thriving as ever. No big surprise. Soon after the ship was docked, we set out to find a bite.

After lunch, we headed out to the market. We planned to at least find a blaster for Sinya and perhaps one that I could intergrade into T7’s systems. After all, there was a blaster mount on T7, it would be a waste not to use it. The market district was a pretty good mishmash and there was all type of shops everywhere, from arms and armour to holocommunicators; from stims to food stalls. Hell, I even saw a stall selling paper books. I told Sinya to find herself a new blaster and some cloths while T7 and I went to find some offensive upgrades for the little droid. As we walked through the market, I saw a stall selling A-180 blasters. With how configurable that blaster was, I bet I could seamlessly intergrade it into T7’s mount. It also packs a punch, nice. The stall also had durasteel lined vests that can go under normal clothing. Some extra protection was always welcomed.

T7 and I met up with Sinya back at the cantina. Sinya was now outfitted with a leather jacket and grey pants, with a bag of clothing in one hand. She had gotten herself an EE-4 carbine, clipped to her belt. All in all, she looks like your normal hauler, ready for the job. And a job we did get. It was a hauling job to Alderaan, accompanied by the cargo owner, a middle-aged human female that looks every bit the Alderaanian. So off we go after refuelling.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are your thoughts? Leave them below!


	4. Chapter III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piratesssss
> 
> and death.

Of course, trouble never leave me alone. Gravity mines. Of course there would be pirates on a large trade route. Of course the Phoenix would be the one caught. Because why wouldn’t it?

The Phoenix was pulled out of hyperspace sideways, shaking vigorously, throwing things about every which way. Fortunately for me, I was sitting at the command console at the time and didn’t eat a face full of floor. Right out the viewport, a single VCX-100 greeted me with its guns pointing, already firing warning shots. At the same time, they hailed us on comms. Alright, let’s see what they want. I accepted the call.

A Twi’lek male appeared on the holoterminal. ‘We have guns, missiles and torpedoes aimed at you; you stood no chance. So, play nice, would you? We’ll be docking with you and taking whatever we want, offer no resistance and you’ll be alright.’ With that, he cuts off the call. Rude.

Sinya and our passenger came running into the bridge. ‘What's going on?’ Sinya asked.

‘Pirates.’ I told them, then pointed at the passenger, ‘Go to your room and lock the door until we told you it’s safe. Sinya, follow me, we are going to meet them cordially with our blasters.’

We waited for them at the docking port, Sinya in cover next to the door while I stood right at the door, lightsabre in hand, but not ignited.

With a rumble, they docked with the Phoenix. The fools really think we were going to let them walk over us. They will know soon enough. The airlock door opened and four people – two female twi’leks, the twi’lek male that commed me and a human male – walked through the door.

The twi’lek male open his mouth, ‘Move aside, girly, don’t want that nice face of yours be bruised, wouldn’t you?’

The only answer he got was a lightsabre slashing through his head, he landed on the floor in four pieces. The other three immediately opened fire, as did Sinya. The two twi’lek females fell to Sinya’s blaster, and the human got a sabre in his heart. We walked further into the VCX.

From the turret and the cockpit, a human male and a nautolan female came charging out, blasters firing. Sinya gunned the human down with a spray of bolts, riddling him with holes while I jumped straight at the nautolan girl. She stumbled back just in time to avoid the blow, and instead of firing her blaster, she pulled a vibroknife out and slashed at my head. I backed out of her reach and slash upwards, connecting her blade, then spin my own blade in a circle, twisting her wrist so that her knife popped out of her grip. At this point, I could practically taste the fear rolling off her signature. Perhaps she could be a recruit...

I punched her in the face with my sabre hilt. She slumped to the ground after eating a face full of beskar, then got dragged by me to the living area and promptly tied up with the durasteel restrains I found hidden under the seats of the couch.

The ship is ours, now I could run some larger hauling jobs. All without me paying a credit, nice. Only thing left is to search every corner of the ship to find every hidden tracker, listening device and else. Surprisingly, there weren’t any trackers, this shows that they were most likely independent of other pirating groups, and a quick check of the ship logs also confirmed that. Finally, I changed the ownership of the ship to me in the ship’s identification codes and called T7 over to pilot the ship, now named From the Ashes.

I returned to the Phoenix to inform the passenger of this recent development, then with the help of Sinya, we dumped the bodies out the airlock and incinerated them with the turret. After deactivating the mine, the ships, still docked together, jumped back to hyperspace.

‘Ughhhhh’ The nautolan groaned, finally waking up from her beauty sleep. She looked at my silent form staring at her, tried to scramble away, and found herself tied and immobile. Her eyes darted around the room, her fear starting to build up and I felt a panic coming.

‘Calm yourselves, I don’t mean any harm.’ I told the nautolan. ‘Right now, I only want to know a few things from you.’

‘So it’s an interrogation then?’ She asked, trying to put up a brave face, but I could still feel fear rolling off her like a beacon.

‘I would like to call it a friendly conversation but call it what you like. Let’s make a deal, you answer my questions truthfully, and I would not bring harm to you in anyway. You people attacked me first, it’s perfectly in my rights as a citizen of the empire to retaliate and kill you, so consider your options carefully.’ I said. I’ll not kill her anyways, but she doesn’t need to know that.

‘Alright then, I don’t want to die. What do you want to know?’

‘Tell me your name, and why you took up pirating.’

‘It’s Emlita Leymos. As for why I took up this job, I was stealing their ship parts when they caught me, and basically forced me to be their co-pilot, and there I stayed.’ A quiet search of her mind proved her words, and I relaxed in my seat. I then proceeded to ‘interrogate’ her for a bit longer, but my mind was already made up.  
‘Hmm... A pilot you say? I recently found myself with need for one, maybe you could do the job.’

‘Wait really?’ She looked up at me, if her eyes could be any larger, they’d be the size of Endor. sadly, they can’t.

I then released her restrains, ‘You would be flying the From the Ashes,’ I gesture around me, ‘since you know her better, but my droid would be here monitoring, he can and will shoot you if you tries anything.’

‘Okay...’

I invited the crew to a game of dejarik on the Ashes. The first round was between Sinya and Emlita. Emlita choose all but one long ranged, glass canons while Sinya was all tanks. Obviously Emlita got a lot more practice than Sinya, her being not a slave and all, but Sinya didn’t do that bad. Yes, Sinya got her derriere handed to her, but she managed to corner and kill two of Emlita’s glass canons before going down. For someone who probably hadn’t played dejarik since she was a child, that’s not bad at all. Next came the round between Emlita and T7. T7, having never played this game before, got swarmed and lost his pieces one by one.

/That’s not fair, you can’t gang up on me like that./ T7 whined.

‘Stop whining, there’s no rules against picking your opponent’s pieces off by ganging up on them one at a time. It’s completely fair, screaming about it wouldn’t help.’ Sinya chided.

/Bullies.../ T7 sulked away, beeping curses all the way.

‘Now that we got T7’s pouting out of the way, it’s my turn.’ From observing Emlita, I can sum up her playstyle as kiting while the high health melee piece rush at enemy skirmishers and force her opponent to focus on the melee piece. That’s not going to happen to me. I choose two of the range 5 pieces and two melee pieces that could regenerate health. The round started and Emlita made her first move. She rushed her melee at me, as expected my first move would be one of my long-range bombards, targeting Emlita’s glass canons, chipping away most of its health. The round went as I had anticipated: Emlita’s melee got held off by my own melees, and her long range got picked off by my own. She did manage to scratch off both of my melees, but she didn’t last very long after that. Soon after this round, the ships existed hyperspace over Alderaan, and we went back to our stations, the ships undocking in preparation for landing.

I had been to Alderaan before, but never had I really noticed her beauty. All my past visits to this peaceful world was to track down one jedi or another. I was always so focused on the hunt I never stopped and just simply enjoyed the place. I had decided to stay on Alderaan for a few days so the crew could take a break, enjoy the planet, and bond with each other. As for me, I had found a small trail outside the port city that leads deep into the forests, and a small clearing that is far off the trail that I’m quite certain that no one will disturb me. This clearing, with how the sun softly scatter, with how the grass was dotted with yellow flowers, with how the birds sang somewhere in the trees... makes me felt more at peace than I had ever since before the clone wars, when I was just a mere youngling.

In this clearing, I sat down, and attempted to meditate using the jedi way. Unsurprisingly, I could barely enter even a shallow trance. After all, I was a sith acolyte for quite some time, and what did Master Yoda used to say? ‘Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.’ I used to scoff at that saying, whenever it popped up in my mind just after I turned, believing that power would lead to ultimate freedom, so of course, in my mind at the time, ‘starting down the dark path’ would only free me, not dominate me. I was proven wrong. The dark path... Vader, Sideous, the grand inquisitor, all the hatred I felt towards Cere... the dark path only proved to be a shackle of me to servitude to the empire. But at the same time, did I really gain power, and ‘through power, I gain victory, through victory, my chains are broken’? The day I faked my death seemed more like a victory than any of the times I finished a hunt. Me losing to Cal Kestis and got ‘killed’ by Vader for failing was my plan coming to fruition, in a way, this was a victory to me, and through that victory, my chains were indeed broken. Yet I could also see wisdom in Yoda’s words. I might have turned away from the dark path, but I didn’t return to the light. Me not able to release my emotions to the force and reach a meditative trance had proved enough. The dark path had changed me forever, just as leaving it had. For better or for worse, I could not tell.


	5. Chapter IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Aaliyah went shopping, and found a new friend.

The _Phoenix_ softly docked with the _Outland Station_ , next to her, so did the _From the Ashes_. We were delivering a shipload of weapons to the station. Apparently pirate attacks were becoming more common yet the local moff is doing nothing to stop its spread. As a result, the station is starting to arm itself in tubrolasers, instead of just the usual laser cannons. We were one of the contractors delivering parts, and parts we did deliver. This would be a profitable run.

Indeed, it was profitable. The pay was enough for us to upgrade both ships' hyperdrives to class one hyperdrives. I and Emlita stayed to install it while the others left for the casino on the station. It didn’t take long to switch out the hyperdrives on both ships. I just wanted to stay on the _Phoenix_ to meditate, but Emlita dragged me to the merchant’s row. The market district was as expected, loud, crowded and full of all kinds of goods mish-mashed together.

‘We have all kinds of decorations you can ever dream of! Need a gift? Feeling your place is too bland? Come and have a look now!’ A voice shouted.

Well... The _Phoenix_ was a bit lacking on the decorations side. This would be a good opportunity to make the place feel a bit more like home. I walked towards the vendor. On the shelves behind him, I saw quite a few paintings, real hand-drawn paintings instead of the holopaintings that don’t really look right for paintings. There were also different kinds of small trinkets, from bubbleheads to small gemstones to miniature statues. The vendor was a human man, with a head shiner than the twin suns of Tatooine, and the most fantastic moustache I had ever laid my eyes on. Then I saw it. There was an intricately decorated triangle-shaped object sitting in a corner, and a yellow crystal gently humming in the force, and my crystal hummed in return, resonating with it. A Sith Holocron and a kyber crystal, one that, was seemingly a velmorite from its texture and one that, wants to be in the same sabre with my original crystal. I would leave this shop with both, even if only to keep them out of the emperor’s hands. Force knows the emperor didn’t need more holocrons and crystals to his disposal.

‘Hello there! What decorations and trinkets do you want?’ The vendor asked, noticing me. ‘Whatever you want, I’ll have it. Just name it!’

‘What about that crystal and the pyramid there? How do you come by them?’ I asked, pointing at the objects of my desire.

‘Oh, these two were already here when I took over this shop, no one ever wanted them, so I’ll give you a discount, 800 for both.’

‘Sounds fair, you have a deal.’ I passed over a credit chip, and he scanned with his chip reader, deducting the amount then passing it back to me. I scooped up the two things, placed them in my back, and left. I can’t wait to get back to the ship.

I slipped out of the market when Emlita was distracted and made way to the Phoenix as fast as possible, excited at the chance to own a multi-crystal sabre. Back in my room, I took out the tools I had lying around and disassembled my sabre. Through the force, the sabre separated into many parts. Since I had to make do with what I had, my sabre had more space in the hilt than what was required, and that space was filled with a block of durasteel. I measured the length of the sabre core after I changed the crystal chamber then shortened the block accordingly with the grinding tool I had. That took far too long to complete, when I finally put the sabre back together, it was already night in standard time and suddenly there was a knock at my door, it was Sinya. ‘Hey, Emlita cooked dinner, get out of your hidey-hole before we eat it all!’

With a groan, I stood from my seated position and opened the door. Sinya greeted me with her arms folded on her chest, ‘Now, why did you bail on me?’ She asked.  
‘I got stuff to do.’ Came the reply, ‘I found a better crystal for this,’ I tapped my sabre, ‘so I came back and install it.’

‘Still, that’s not nice.’ She pouted.

‘I’m not nice.’

Dinner was delicious. Emlita cooked up nerf steaks with some kind of sauce that I couldn’t identify but was sweet and sour at the same time and paired it off with veggies coated in a black sauce. It had been a long time since I had eaten such fine food. Although the inquisitors got better food than the normal troopers, it was still horrendously bland and unappetising.

‘Emlita this is amazing! Wat’s the sauce?’ Looks like Sinya thought the same.

‘A brilliant magician never reveals her secrets.’

‘Aww.’ She pouted, walked behind Emlita and started caressing her head-tresses. Emlita gave a shocked gasp at the motion, her hand rising to stop Sinya when the twi’lek started stroking two of her head-tresses. Emlita seemingly melted in Sinya’s hands, tipping her head back to press into Sinya’s hands and even started letting out tiny moans. _So this is how you disable Emlita, good to know._

As abruptly as the stroking began, Sinya withdrew her hands. Emlita whined and reached for her, only for her to skip to the far end of the room. ‘Now tell me what the sauce is.’

Instead of replying, Emlita jumped at Sinya, clutching her lekkus and tugged her head close to snog her. Sinya responded enthusiastically after a brief struggle, her hands started caressing Emlita’s body, wandering lower and lower.

‘Oh, get a room, you two.’ I shouted.

Emlita broke off the kiss and glanced at me. A bit embarrassed, she quickly dragged Sinya into her room. Well, those two will have a good night.

After putting the dishes to the washer, I retired back to my room, leaving T7 on watch. Back in my room, I summoned the holocron to my hands. I checked to my best ability for traps that are most likely there. To my surprise, there weren’t any traps, even those subtle traps I heard Vader the emperor talked about once. _Let’s see what this one had to say..._

‘This is Darth Averie talking. What do you seek, curious minds?’ A lifelike figure of a human woman with purple hair and dark blue eyes popped up from the holocron.  
‘You’re surprisingly lifelike for a holocron.’ I told the woman, ‘How did you manage to make your image so colourful and devoid of the blue tint?’

‘Simple. You’re not seeing a holoimage, you’re seeing a spirit.’ Averie replied, leaving the holocron and expanding to a full-size human. ‘I bounded my soul to this holocron, and here I stayed, for thousands of years. At least I wasn’t thrown away, forgotten in some junkyard, but still, I hadn’t been able to talk to anyone for a long time.’

I narrowed my eyes at her. It was strange, I couldn’t read her force presence at all. Were all spirits like this?

‘Hmm... You had once walked the light path, and the dark path. Yet you were neither Sith nor Jedi. Curious.’ Averie said as I felt her probing at my mind. I pushed her out, glaring at her. ‘Now now now, don’t give me that look, I was just testing you. To be honest, you are like my apprentice, neither dark, nor light. She took up the title of being a Sith, yet she was more grey than light or dark. I could teach you to walk this path if you like.’

‘I don’t need another master.’ I gritted my teeth.

‘I don’t mean it as master and apprentice, but merely as a friend passing on knowledge. I was bored, I just want someone to talk to.’

‘And also, how could a Sith teach me to walk the path of neither light nor dark?’

She didn’t answer, merely stopped shielding her presence in the force. I felt a wave of dark energy, tightly bound to her, clinging to her, yet not emitting from her core. It was as if it was protecting whatever her core was. The energy then parted, allowing me to get a glimpse of what lies underneath. It was a core of light, mostly. There were tendrils of darkness floating about, but instead of struggling for dominance, the dark and the light coexisted inside her.

‘Alright then, Averie.’ I sighed. Although I didn’t like it, I could see the benefit of her proposal.

‘First thing first, stop calling me Averie, call me Eleatal.’

‘Acknowledged, when shall we start?’

‘Tomorrow morning, go get some shut-eye for now.’

By _tomorrow morning_ , Eleatal meant _middle of the night_. I was slapped awake by a pillow at four, to the image of the spirit staring down at me, telling me to grab some food before starting the training.

We went to the cargo hold for training. Eleatal first tested my skills in manipulating the force, and her reaction from my performance was ‘Your previous master really held you back, didn’t they?’

‘I was intended to be just a Jedi hunter, and that was it. They didn’t want me to have to be a threat.’

‘Alright let’s see your sabre skills.’

I took my lightsabre off my belt and ignited it. Eleatal opened her mouth – then she spotted my sabre hilt and did a double-take. ‘Did you build that yourself?’ She asked, ‘Can I have a look?’

I held put my sabre for her inspection. ‘Yes, I built it myself with things I found in a junkyard. It has two crystals, one of which is a velmorite crystal.’

‘Nice. You got your fingers chopped off too many times before?’

‘Yes.’

‘I see. Please proceed to show me your skills.’

Over the many months, I trained under Eleatal. She didn’t teach me any particular force techniques at all, but she taught me how to use the force to create what I imagined. I had never imagined just how much I could do with the force before. Instead of throwing a giant stone that could easily be avoided at someone, I found that it was much more effective to accelerate a tiny pebble to near lightspeed at an opponent; instead of force pushing someone away, I could only push their legs and trip them, making them easy to dispatch...  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people!
> 
> How's life in your little corner of existence? It has been quiet for me.
> 
> -Lucas


End file.
